The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded the Nobel Prize in physics to Francis Halzen.
He received the award for this "decisive contributions to the IceCube neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin," the academy said.
The committee described the neutrinos as "ghostly messengers from space."
What Francis Halzen said about his Nobel prize
Born in Belgium, the 82-year-old is a physics professor University of Wisconsin–Madison in the United States. Halzen acknowleged the prize as he was called on the phone by the panelists who presented the award.
He told the Nobel academy that he was "surprised" to get the prize and thanked the many contributors to the project, adding that the discoveries required a lot of "luck."
"This was kind of an adventure, where success was not guaranteed. It was a long journey, but it finally worked," Halzen said.
The Belgian scientist said that he hoped his Nobel Prize reflects on the "really courageous people" who believed in the project. "No really respectable conservative physicists would have joined me, but many talented people did, and that's why I'm here," Halzen added.
Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever extended his "heartfelt congratulations" to Halzen. He noted that Halzen is the 11th Belgian to win a Nobel, and the second in physics.
What is the IceCube neutrino Observatory?
Neutrinos are tiny cosmic particles of ultra small mass that are present everywhere. They come from stars like the sun and trillions of them pass through our bodies every second.
Scientists are not able to observe the so-called ghost particles zooming around on their own, so they measure what happens when they collide with other bits of matter.
Halzen's idea of capturing neutrinos at the Earth's South Pole dates back to the 1980s. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was subsequently built at the South Pole in Antarctica as a dedicated facility to capture and study the neutrinos.
"The neutrinos we detect are like fingerprints that help us understand the objects and phenomena where the neutrinos are produced," the group said.
"IceCube collaborators address several big questions in physics, like the nature of dark matter and the properties of the neutrino itself," the organization says.
Some 450 physicists from 58 institutions in 14 countries make up the IceCube collaboration.
The Nobel prizes awarded this week
The physics prize has been awarded 119 times to 230 laureates between 1901 and 2025.
Last year, it went to three scientists for their research on the strange behavior of subatomic particles called quantum tunneling that enabled the ultra-sensitive measurements achieved by MRI machines and laid the groundwork for better cellphones and faster computers.
It is the second Nobel announced this week, after the medicine prize was awarded to three scientists whose work on optogenetics has helped unravel how the brain works.
Further laureates are set to be named in chemistry, literature and peace in the days up to Friday.
The prizes will be presented at ceremonies on 10 December.
The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million; €1 million), whether for an individual, a small group of laureates or an organization.
Edited by: Rob Turner
